Voice portals are used to answer calls and obtain information from callers. For example, businesses often use voice portals that include interactive voice response (IVR) systems to interact with callers and to obtain information from the callers. IVR systems also may be used by businesses to make outgoing calls to customers and/or potential customers.
The IVR system may be combined or associated with an automatic call distributor (ACD) or the like, so that under certain conditions of the IVR processing of a call, the call may be transferred to an available agent (e.g. customer service representative) of the enterprise for further interaction with the customer or prospective customer. As an outbound call example, an enterprise may desire to set-up a campaign or call prospective customers to offer a special deal to any prospect that signs-up as a new customer to call existing customers behind in account payments to ask for payment. In examples like these, when the IVR interaction is successful at some point in the automated conversation, the IVR passes the call off via the ACD to an agent to complete the transaction, e.g. payment for a new customer and/or payment from an existing customer that had been in arrears. The IVR interaction may also terminate with a completed self service transaction.
Current outbound IVR solutions have multiple limitations including not being scalable for specific business requirements, and not having centralized management for effectively controlling the outbound calls and results of those calls. These current outbound solutions also do not include an interface that allows users to manage/configure the outbound solution. These current outbound solutions also do not integrate with a Media Processing Server (MPS) that executes the IVR solutions.